FEAR COMES TO BOBTOWN

[defrog]

ITEM: Bobtown, PA has banned trick-or-treating for this year’s Halloween – for unspecified safety reasons.

Instead, Bobtown will hold a four-hour Halloween party at the Bobtown-Dunkard Volunteer Fire Station.

Lame!

Of course, in the post-9/11 Kingdom of Fear, it’s a wonder more towns haven’t done the same thing. Still, in this case it does build on the existing worry base of strangers handing yr kids Gummi Cyanide Bears.

Which has never actually really happened – at least according to a book I’ve mentioned before – Free Range Kids, which makes an argument that letting yr kids go out to play is no more dangerous now than it was 40 years ago. The book cites a study from Joel Best, a professor of sociology and criminal justice at the University of Delaware, who studied crime reports from Halloween dating back as far as 1958.

Number of incidents where kids were poisoned by a stranger’s candy: zero. However, he did find one case where a kid was poisoned by his dad for insurance money.

Of course, that doesn’t mean it’ll never, ever happen. But for the most part, it’s more urban legend than fact.

And yes, technically fear of urban legend is within the spirit of the holiday. But not nearly as much fun. And in any case, I don’t see why getting free candy at a party held by strangers is any safer than getting free candy from them door to door.

I want candy,

This is dF

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[nebris.livejournal.com]